On Amir's other journey during his escape from Russian occupation with his father in March 1981, the two escaped from Kabul with others and headed toward Jalalabad, where they would take a second truck to freedom in Pakistan. During a stop in Mahipar Falls, Baba showed his courage by standing up to a Russian soldier who planned to rape one the female passengers as partial payment for allowing the group to pass. From Jalalabad, they eventually crossed the Khyber Pass in the recess of an empty fuel tanker. They first stopped in Paghman before crossing the Pakistan border and reaching the relative safety of Peshawar.

Rahim Khan wants Amir to see him in Pakistan. He calls Amir and tells him he is very sick but there is a way “for him to be good again.” Amir first goes to Pakistan, then, and meets with Rahim Kahn, an adult friend of his father’s who had befriended Amir when he was yet a child. Rahim was a type of mentor to Amir. When he first arrives, he goes through the Peshawar district. A cab driver tells him that Afghanistan has become a disaster since the Taliban took over. Rahim tells Amir that he had been living in Baba’s house in Kabul. Hassan and his wife also go to live there, but they are shot by the Taliban one day. Rahim tells Amir that his father, Baba, was really the father of Hassan. Rahim Kahan wants Amir to find Hassan’s son, Sohrab, who was sent to an orphanage. At first, Amir does not want to go, but he finally realizes he must, and Rahim Kahn gets a friend to take Amir to Kabul. Amir sees signs of war all along the way. Taliban are present everywhere.

Amir finds Sohrab, who is being held by a Taliban official that turns out to be the evil Assef of his childhood, the one who raped his friend Hassan when they were boys. There is a fight, and Amir wakes up in a hospital back in Peshawar. Amir realizes that Sohrab is not safe in Afghanistan, and takes him to Islamabad, Pakistan, to try to arrange to bring him to the U.S.